


Batfam Bonanza

by BookofOdym



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Green Lantern - All Media Types
Genre: Bat Family, Family Feels, First Aid, Fluff, Good Uncle Hal Jordan, Lantern Family, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-10
Updated: 2019-05-13
Packaged: 2019-11-15 04:41:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 7,295
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18066770
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BookofOdym/pseuds/BookofOdym
Summary: Now that Hal and Bruce are dating, Hal finds himself spending a lot more time with Bruce's family. In return, Bruce has to spend time with Hal's. Did I mention that Hal's family includes Guy Gardner?





	1. Chapter 1

Hal had asked Bruce when they started dating if them being together meant that he was allowed to operate inside Gotham. Bruce had strict rules about who could be in his city, and rule number one was probably “no Lanterns.” Bruce had been silent for a moment as if he was giving it some serious thought before he replied with a blunt: “Stay out of my City.”  

Hal had looked at him incredulously, asking how he expected to be given blowjobs if Hal wasn’t allowed in Gotham, but Bruce had just left the room with a swish of his cape.  

But something was going on at Arkham on that night, so Hal thought that Bruce could maybe do with some help with his city, especially when he overheard something about shipments from Modora coming into Gotham from some gang members. Anything coming from Modora was Lantern business, and Bruce couldn’t say anything if Hal stopped his own villains in his territory (probably).  

He just hadn’t expected someone to cough behind him as he opened one of the crates.  

“Does B know that you’re here?” Dick Grayson asked, dangling from a wooden beam that was supporting the roof by his legs.  

“He actually thinks I’m at home in his bed,” Hal replied, pulling a box from the crate, “he’ll only find out I’m not there if he calls to ask for help, which isn’t gonna happen.” He made a resigned noise when he finally deciphered the language on the package, it had ended up being easier to just learn Modoran rather than to use the ring, it was always mistranslating phrases into sexual propositions. “Nucleo Sonic Motor, it’s my case.”  

Unfortunately, instead of leaving, Dick front flipped onto the ground, “and how do you think Bruce is going to take it if his boyfriend is in the hospital and I didn’t do anything to stop it.”  

Hal wanted to tell him that he had been fighting Sonar since Dick had been Robin and that he actually had a chance to talk him down, but he knew that nothing would convince him to let him handle it alone. Dick would end up watching him from a nearby rooftop if nothing else, and there really was no way to stop him from following, so he reluctantly formed a construct platform that could carry the younger man as he flew through the air.  

They stopped outside the Dark Side Bar, an unfortunately named establishment that had Hal uncertain if the proprietors were aware of Darkseid as a being or if they were just fans of Star Wars.  

He let his constructs dissolve as Dick jumped to the ground, leaving him in his civilian clothes, this would work better as a somewhat clandestine operation, and even though more of Hal’s villains knew his secret identity than technically should have, he didn’t think Bito would reveal it like that.  

“Can you wait outside for a second?” He turned to Dick, who looked apprehensive. “You can get involved if things get violent, but I think if a guy goes to your funeral, he has to at least kind of like you.” 

Dick winced but promised that he would bring him grapes when he inevitably ended up in hospital.  

It was actually pretty amazing how many of his villains were in a seedy bar in Gotham, so many that Hal was starting to wonder if they would appreciate a similar one in Coast City, but one with less filthy beer mugs, he should ask John about that. The original Tattooed Man was working at the bar and dropped his gaze to the mug in his hand the second that he noticed Hal, giving it some half-hearted wipes with a cloth. Hal hoped that this was an honest job for him in his long road to reform. 

Major Disaster was cheating at darts, Hal hadn’t actually been aware that you could do that until he saw one of the darts rebound off of the board and fly directly into the eye of the man who threw it, who collapsed to the floor with a cry of pain.  

He diverted his eyes from the growing pool of blood, turning his attention to actually finding the man who he was looking for until he finally spotted Neal Emerson sitting at a table in the corner. A fashionably dressed arm was wrapped around his shoulder, and the man gave Hal the weak smile of a man who had been dragged to the bar when he had really just wanted to go to the movies.  

Hal plonked himself down on the chair across from them. “So, you two on a date?”  

Sonar beamed at him, apparently unconcerned with the fact that his old enemy had tracked him to a villain bar. “Miscreant! You are alive! But I am afraid that you will not be ruining my plans tonight. First, you will have to figure out what they are.”  

“Well,” Hal paused so that he could steal a handful of fries from their shared plate, “judging from the crates in the warehouse by the docks... I’m guessing that you’re taking advantage of Music Meister’s arrest and moving in on his territory so that you can technically be a Batman villain, and Modora will become more famous by proxy.”  

Sonar looked offended. “Nepristojan! I would never be unfaithful to you!”  

Hal shifted uncomfortably in his seat in response to that, and Neal buried his face in his hands, before sighing. “He got offered 500 dollars for some of his motors, Riddler has a new death trap planned.”  

“Do not tell him!”  

“Then don’t flirt!”  

Hal decided that he didn’t particularly want to stay for the argument, but as he stood up, he felt the unmistakable feeling of the cold barrel of a gun pressing up against the back of his neck.  

“Now, unless you happen to be Parallax right now,” came the cold voice of Keith Kenyon, “I don’t see any reason for you to be in here.”  

The window next to them exploded inwards so suddenly that Hal didn’t know if it was because of the discharge of a sonic weapon or because Nightwing had taken the opportunity to jump through it. But a well-placed kick from the vigilante sent the Gold Gun careening away from Hal’s head and down his arm right as a beam shot from its barrel.  

“Oh, you idiot,” Hal smirked, turning towards the fight, already preparing to jump in, “you just gave me a metal arm.”  

Unfortunately for both Hal and Dick, that was when a rough voice rang out: “Hey, isn’t that Nightwing?!”  

All Hell proceeded to break loose.  

“Hey,” Hal said three hours later as he leaned against the door frame of Dick’s hospital room, looking more sheepish than Dick had ever seen him in the fifteen years they had known each other. He pulled a paper bag out of a pocket dimension, “I know you probably didn’t have dinner, and burgers taste way better than hospital food.”  

“Thanks,” Dick easily caught the bag when Hal tossed it in his direction, “but you don’t need to apologize.”  

“I should have recognized Kenyon. I’ve fought him enough times. Bruce is going to give me a lecture about being aware of my surroundings again.”  

Dick laughed. “Probably. But I’m not Bruce, and I just thought it was pretty cool when you adapted to using that arm to fight so quickly.”  

Hal winced. “You think he’ll notice that?”  

“That your arm is solid gold?”  

Hal took the hint, and immediately went quiet, Dick immediately knew that he had to change the subject since the Lantern was obviously thinking about how painful Bruce would make the breakup when he saw.  

“He just doesn’t want you getting involved in Gotham because he’s protective. Clark is invulnerable pretty much all the time, but you aren’t,” it was probably a bad time to mention the one time five years before that Bruce had said that the Lanterns wore the most powerful weapon in the universe but shared half a brain cell between them. “He thinks that if your ring runs out of charge when you’re working with him, the Joker will hurt you. But if you can prove him wrong...”  

It would be a tough challenge, but Hal was the most strong-willed person in the sector, if anyone could do it, it was him.  

“Plus,” Dick continued, “if you ask him to teach you to fight, he’ll probably be seriously turned on.” 


	2. Chapter 2

It was dark when Hal woke up, and a thick arm had been thrown loosely around him. If Bruce was back, then that probably meant that it was between three and four in the morning, and Hal already knew that was no way that he would be able to get back to sleep, especially when he had an early flight the next day. 

Bruce’s arm tightened around him when he moved to get up, and his blue eyes fluttered open,  leveling  Hal with the glare of the truly tired, he growled a noise of complaint, trying to pull the Lantern underneath him, but gave up after Hal pulled away more forcefully. 

Hal rolled his eyes but ruffled Bruce’s hair as he pulled away. “Just going to get some water,” he told him, but Bruce had already drifted back off to sleep. 

With a sigh, Hal headed towards the kitchen. The entire house was dark, but he didn’t bother turning on any of the lights as the glow from his ring could light his way. Plus, he didn’t particularly want to wake any of Bruce’s kids. 

The light was already on in the kitchen, and a quick glance showed him that Jason Todd was raiding the fridge, with a six pack of beer already resting on the table. Hal was actually kind of surprised to see him, since he knew that he and Bruce had more issues than almost anyone else he knew, although, since Jason was stealing food in the dead of night, it was hardly a sign that they’d even talked about their problems. 

Bruce wouldn’t want Hal getting involved though, especially since he couldn’t even repair his own relationship with his older brother. 

“Are you even old enough to be drinking beer?” He asked, getting disappointed when Jason didn’t even seem slightly surprised to hear his voice, he just pulled out the leftover pizza that Tim had left in the fridge and downed an entire can of beer in one go. The way he turned towards Hal afterward made it evident that he’d done it out of spite. 

After a few moments spent in awkward silence, Jason finally spoke. “Is today Bruce’s day?” He asked. 

“Bruce’s day?” Hal turned that question over in his head, trying to find the secret meaning, but it remained impenetrable. 

“I was just remembering some of the  rumors  that I heard about you and the Justice League. You and all of the founding members, in fact.” The smirk that formed on Jason’s lips made it clear exactly what he was talking about. “Which is fine, you know, if a man wants to be dicked down by six or seven other men and a hot Amazonian who am I to judge?” 

Hal, who decided that he needed to be a lot drunker than he was to deal with the ‘you’re way too much of a slut to be dating my dad’ talk, snagged one of Jason’s beers and cracked it open. “It’s only Bruce’s day in the sense that every day is his day now if he feels up to it.” 

The look on the younger man’s face shifted to something that Hal didn’t want to analyze. “And if you feel up to it, don’t forget that you’re Roy’s uncle, he gets worried about you,” Jason said sternly. Hal had to resist the urge to shrug in response, he didn’t like that Jason knew about his previous issues, but Roy had been there when he had thrown up the cum from one of the Lost Lanterns. He’d been too sick to be on duty, and John would have put him on desk duty for a month if he’d known, but he’d still let the alien fuck his mouth when he asked. 

In retrospect, the fact that  Ke’Haan’s  cum was bright red had probably been what freaked Roy out in the first place, and everything else had just added on to that initial worry. 

Jason continued. “So, you and Bruce. What is this? Dating?” 

“Uh, Bruce isn’t exactly a big fan of the whole going on dates thing. His  favorite  lecture is that being seen together in public might lead to our identities being compromised.” 

“God,” Jason muttered, offering Hal a slice of pizza and another beer, because he deserved it after dealing with Bruce’s shit for so long, “I have not watched him pine over you for years, only to have him ruin this with his own paranoia. Have you asked him to go on a date in Coast City?” 

“The highlight of the nightlife in Coast City is Warriors. Something tells me that Bruce wouldn’t exactly consider hanging out in Guy’s bar a good time,” he sat there, deep in thought for a long while. “Do you think that he’d go in for moonlight scuba diving?” 

Jason snorted. “You want to ask Batman to go skinny dipping with you?” 

The fact that Hal’s cheeks started to turn pink in response to that probably didn’t help his case when he retorted: “I’m not asking him to go skinny dipping! I was just remembering the first time I asked Clark out.” 

“You asked  _ Superman _  to go skinny dipping?!” 

It was, all in all, the worst possible time for Bruce to shuffle into the kitchen. “What’s going on?” He asked blearily, he had clearly just woken up. 

“Talking about all of Hal’s dates with Clark,” Jason grinned, Hal was beginning to suspect that he just liked causing chaos, “and how you need to be a better boyfriend, but you two can sort that out between yourselves. I’m heading out.” 

He jumped out of the window at that, leaving Hal and Bruce standing alone in the kitchen. 

“I’m a bad boyfriend?” Bruce said finally, after staring longingly at the coffee machine for five minutes, before remembering that he didn’t know how to work it. He sounded confused, but then he’d clearly only had two hours of sleep, possibly less. Hal kissed his forehead, already leading Bruce back to bed. “Will skinny dipping make me a better boyfriend?” 

“Oh my God,” Hal muttered to himself, “you’re fine, just get some more rest.” 

But Bruce was like a dog with a bone, it really was a shame how this was the only time he knew when to express his emotions. 

“Clark’s married, I don’t think you’ll have much luck with him.” 

It looked like Hal had to tell him. “We were just talking about date ideas. Because we haven’t even gone on a date yet, B.” 

Bruce blinked at him sleepily. “There’s a French Restaurant in Cherry Hill that I could take you to tomorrow.” 

Yeah, that wasn’t happening. 

Warriors would probably do.


	3. Chapter 3

It wasn’t like Bruce was terrible as a father, Tim told himself, it was just that he was terrible at giving advice. You couldn’t ask him about issues with your relationships, or your friendships, or how to deal with high school drama, or just about anything that you might need to know about navigating life as an ordinary person. 

But Hal had been hanging around the manor a lot more lately. He had been dating Bruce for a few months, and anyone who was able to stay in a relationship with Bruce for that long, probably had some good advice, Tim thought. He didn’t know how wrong he was. 

He tracked the Lantern down to the rooftop that he was lounging on, drinking a large coffee, a box of donuts was open on the cement beside him. 

Tim knew that Bruce wouldn’t be happy about Hal hanging around Gotham in costume like this, or about Hal eating on someone’s roof. He crouched down on the roof next to Hal, staring at him silently. 

“Jesus Fucking Christ,” Hal breathed out, the moment that he noticed one of Bruce’s tiny ninjas right up in his personal space. 

“There are twenty donuts in that box,” Tim said, sounding amazed, or possibly horrified, or maybe just hungry, “will you at least share them with me?” 

Hal pushed the box towards him, and Tim snagged three of the donuts, wearing them on his fingers like rings. “I’m not just here to steal your food, I actually wanted to ask your advice about something.” 

Hal choked on his coffee. “Jesus Fucking Christ,” he said again. Tim was starting to suspect that it was the only thing that he could say. 

“Yeah,” Tim said carefully, he was unsure about how to proceed with this after that less than enthusiastic response. “I’m having guy trouble.” 

Hal laughed, Tim wasn’t sure if that was a good sign or not. “Okay. I get you. I can probably help you with guy trouble. No kind of guy trouble is worse than your first boyfriend stabbing you in a forest.” 

“What?” The former Robin asked weakly, he felt like he should be concerned, maybe ask Bruce if Hal was alright or if he was still feeling some residual effects from Parallax. 

“I should probably mention that my first boyfriend ended up becoming Black Hand.” 

“Right,” Tim said, feeling like his head was spinning, but just because Hal had a bad taste in men (that apparently leaned towards the gothic) didn’t mean that he gave bad advice. “Well, okay, I’m not dating a supervillain. Actually, it’s the opposite, I’ve been trying to find a way to tell Kon that I want to take our relationship to another level.” 

Hal looked like he was thinking about the dilemma carefully. “Well, with Bruce, I  kinda  just fought with him until he got that I was interested.” Which obviously translated to ‘I had  hate  sex with him on every available surface, but then we caught feelings for each other.’ 

Tim resisted the urge to smack his face with his palm. “That really isn’t going to help me here, Hal.” 

“Have you thought about breaking into an Air Force base to take him flying?” The Lantern asked as if that was an entirely reasonable suggestion to make. 

“I can safely say that I have never even thought of that.” 

Suddenly regretting everything that he had done in the lead up to his conversation with Hal, Tim stood up, getting ready to jump across to the next rooftop over. 

But Hal spoke up again, stopping him in his tracks. “Look, there’s really no way better than just telling him. You two are friends, so it’s probably not going to go that badly, at least not if he values you as a friend. There’s just no secret  foolproof  way to get somebody to go out with you.” 

Tim sighed, running his right hand through his hair. “I’ll call him tonight. Thank you for trying.” Even though he hadn’t actually done anything to help. 

Hal nodded at him. “I can ask John what you do on the first date to actually get a second one if you want me to.”


	4. Chapter 4

"Bruce?" Hal asked early one morning, pulling the covers off of the other man’s face so that the light would shine on him. Hal was well aware that that was the only way to get him to wake up long enough to listen.  

Bruce grunted and rolled over, giving off the air of someone who was entirely willing to push their boyfriend off the bed if he persisted in making noise before noon.  

Hal was not someone who would be easily put off by something like that though. “Do you think that I should buy Cass something for her birthday? I’ve never had a stepdad get me a present, but is it like... a thing that they generally do?”  

Bruce made a valiant effort to open his eyes and have a mature conversation with Hal. He muttered: “Not her stepfather yet,” or something to that effect, and went right back to sleep.  

The Lantern sighed, he should have known better than to ask something about this, this was really the kind of thing that he should have asked John about.  

John, for his part, had not particularly enjoyed being woken up at three in the morning for a question like that, but in the end, he had agreed with Hal’s assessment that he should be doing things with Bruce’s family if he really expected this relationship to go anywhere. Then John had paused. “Although-” he started, but thought better about whatever he was about to say.  

When his partner didn’t continue, Hal seized the opportunity to ask about his next most significant problem. “But since it’s Cass, what do you think I should get her?”  

John outright groaned at that. “I don’t spend that much time around Bruce and his kids, Hotshot, you’re going to have to figure that one out for yourself. Or you could ask Bruce.”  

“I think he might have locked the bedroom door the moment I left.”  

* * *

Even a day later, Hal was still having a ton of difficulty figuring out what he should get. His first thought had been to get her a book, one like The Little Prince, but Dick had shaken his head rapidly when he asked him about the idea.  

Jason clapped him on the back in sympathy and asked him why he didn’t just get something easy, like a scented candle or a plushie, since this was his first year trying to get them presents.  

The pilot thought about it. “I guess some candles have pretty cool names, like... this one time I saw one called Dragon’s Blood and who knows what’s in that, but it sounds pretty metal.”  

Jason looked like he wanted to bang his head against the wall. “It’s the resin from a fucking tree, Hal, how can you not know that?”  

Bruce had looked up at him, horrified when he asked if roman candles were what it was called when you dipped a person in wax and if so, why he could buy two dozen of them on Amazon for only 5 dollars. The vigilante had steepled his fingers when Hal told him that he was still working on his birthday present plan.  

“I’ll buy the present for you if you want,” Bruce offered, not even looking up from his computer, “because while I already know that you’re not going to drop this, I also know that you have no idea how to buy someone a present that they’ll actually like.”  

Hal coughed. He couldn’t believe that Bruce had such little faith in him. “I do so know how to give gifts!”  

“For the past three Christmases, you have given me Green Lantern boxers, I don’t even have time to list all of the reasons that that’s not a good idea.”  

“But aren’t I your favorite superhero?”  

“Hal,” Bruce said as kindly as possible, given the size of the bombshell he was about to drop, “you aren’t even my favorite Green Lantern.”  

Hal had ended up sulking about that for the rest of the day, only coming out of his funk for the five seconds that it had taken for him to lean into Bruce’s study and ask: “But was I your favorite Spectre though?” (Bruce had thrown a cushion at him), he hadn’t gotten anything done, and both John and Carol were likely to chase him down for his missing paperwork. Worst of all, he still didn’t have any good ideas.  

Damian had been the one who had solved his problem. He had come in on Hal’s third day of planning (he had just remembered the time he'd spent all of the money he was supposed to spend on decorations on a drone, Jim’s kids had loved that) and put an empty jar down on the table with a thunk.  

“You should make her a glitter jar.” Damian had said shortly, neglecting to tell Hal exactly what a glitter jar was.  

“A glitter jar?” Hal repeated as if repeating it would make things clearer.  

“She gets anxious easily, the jar will help calm her down. It was my original idea, but she requested that I paint for her instead.” The boy paused. “I will stay to instruct you, I doubt that Pennyworth would appreciate you getting glitter all over the kitchen.” 


	5. Chapter 5

Hal had never quite been able to figure out if Damian actually liked him. He thought that the kid was kind of like a mini Bruce, grouchy and grumpy and happier working alone than in a team than with other people. So, Hal tended to leave him to his own devices, but then sometimes the boy would pop up, acting friendly, or at least slightly less angry, which counted as friendly for him and would offer to help Hal with whatever stupid plan he had cooked up.  

He was an enigma, to say the least.

All in all, despite the uncertainty, Hal had decided to leave things as they were, things had been fine, and he didn’t know if Bruce was going to wake up one morning and realize that he had made a terrible mistake, and Damian was probably just waiting for that moment. Like most kids, he was always hopeful that his parents would end up getting back together.

Everything had been going fine until Bruce asked him to look after his son for the weekend, it had been Alfred’s annual week off, and Bruce had suddenly gotten embroiled in a difficult case. Which was a suspicious reason and Hal would have accused his boyfriend of setting this up so that the Lantern would spend time with his son if he had actually had a good excuse for why he couldn’t do it.

All this, of course, meant that he was looking after a growly vampire goth kid in Coast City, which Hal had realized had been a mistake within the first hour, when Damian had looked at a man wearing socks and sandals and made a derisive snort.

Hal had needed to apologize when the guy started trying to get physical, which had hardly been fair. He wasn’t even sure why a tourist would go to Coast City; it was a military party town where millions of people had died just a few years before, hardly the place to take photos.

With his mood significantly lowered, Hal had taken the kid to get lunch, and it was truly amazing how grumpy Damian could look while munching on fries, Hal wondered if he usually followed Bruce’s diet of kale smoothies.

Or at least that was what he thought the issue had been until Damian turned to him with a look of disgust and asked: “Don’t you ever cook for yourself?”

Hal didn’t particularly think that he deserved to be called out like that, it was true that he had suggested just ordering Chinese the night before, but it wasn’t like he didn’t know how to cook, it was just that most of the time he couldn’t be bothered.

As the middle child of a low-income family, he’d pretty much needed to look after himself and his younger brother after his dad died, especially since his older brother had gone out and found himself a part-time job the minute that he had legally been allowed to do so. It had been years before Hal had found out that he and Jim had pretty weird tastes and almost no one else found the food he made edible.

“I’m not keeping food in my fridge so that it can go off the next time the Guardians send me on a months-long mission.”

Damian had scoffed and had ended up dragging Hal towards the nearest grocery store. “Well, I absolutely refuse to eat pizza tonight,” he informed the Lantern in a matter of fact tone. “I will instruct you in how to cook vegetables.” 

“I know how to cook vegetables,” Hal said with some uncertainty. 

On Sunday evening, Hal ended up taking Damian out to a baseball game, it was probably important for the boy to do normal kid things for a few hours, even if he complained about it, and boy he sure did complain about it. 

Hal should probably have suspected something when Damian went silent halfway through the game, but when the Lantern turned to him as the crowd started to disperse the boy was fast asleep. Hal had to sling him across his back to take him home, some part of him didn’t want to disturb Damian when he was sleeping so soundly, while another part of him suspected that any attempt to wake the kid up would result in him being stabbed. 

Halfway back to his apartment, Hal’s cell phone started to ring, he resisted the urge to cry out in frustration, mostly because Damian mumbled a sleepy: “Five more minutes,” into Hal’s shoulder. 

It was difficult pulling his phone out of his pocket without disturbing Damian, but eventually, he managed it. “Jack?” The Lantern asked with some confusion when he heard the voice on the other end of the phone. 

“Don’t act surprised,” his older brother bit back, “even you shouldn’t be able to forget the annual family reunion. We’ve been reminding you about it for weeks.” 

Hal closed his  eyes,  he’d known he’d forgotten something when he agreed to take Damian. 

“There was an emergency,” Hal sighed, already anticipating that he would have to drive over as soon as he put Damian to bed, he carefully stepped out of the way of a pair of pedestrians before he spoke again, “my boyfriend needed me to...” 

That had been entirely the wrong thing to say, he could practically hear the distaste in Jack’s voice before he even opened his mouth to respond. “Actually, Hal, don’t bother, I already know how little you-” 

His voice suddenly cut off, leaving Hal standing there in confusion for almost a minute before he realized that a small hand had reached up and hung up the phone without him noticing. 

“I will fight anyone who insults Father’s idiot boyfriend,” Damian muttered darkly, before falling right back asleep.

Hal wasn’t sure how he was even supposed to respond to that.


	6. Chapter 6

Okay, Hal did know that Bruce wasn’t necessarily the biggest fan of him being in the cave, he liked having a place to himself, where rogue Lanterns couldn’t wander around poking things and messing up his work, but in Hal’s defense, this time it was incredibly important that he got to speak to Bruce. He needed to talk to the vigilante about an issue that had just popped up in Coast City, but Bruce had both his phone and his communicator switched off.  

Of course, getting into the cave was a chore from the outside, it would be much easier to go to the front door and let Alfred seat him in the parlor with a tea set, he could probably even get cream and jam scones out of the deal. But Hal never did things the easy way. He found himself clambering up into Bruce’s cave through the exit passageway, every so often dodging traps that made him wonder if Batman was out on patrol. He handily leaped over an electrified net that shot out of the wall and stumbled into an empty cave. “Bruce?” He called out, still half hoping that the man would poke his head out of the shadows and growl at him. His only response was silence.  

The Lantern allowed himself to fall back into Bruce’s swivel chair, groaning at how comfortable it felt because of course, the rich boy would spend $2000 on a chair. He spun it around until he could rest his feet on the table, which Bruce would definitely wrinkle his nose at had he been present. It was evident that Batman was out on patrol, but Hal could just wait for him here, and maybe catch a few Zs while he waited, since it had to be at least 48 hours since he had gotten any sleep.  

Or at least that had been the plan, but unfortunately for Hal, he had only just managed to close his eyes and drift off to sleep when a loud crash came from behind him.  

His eyes snapped open, and he gazed wildly into the darkness, trying to see who or what could have made the noise. He couldn’t make anything out, and not bothering to wait for his eyes to adjust, he rose his hand, preparing to send out a pulse of green light but, a moment later, the light in the area of the cave that Hal knew to have been set aside for first aid purposes came on.  

“Bruce?” The Lantern called out again, heading in the direction of the light, but as he rounded the corner, he saw that it wasn’t Bruce. Instead, it was a teenaged boy dressed almost entirely in yellow. 

The boy apparently hadn’t heard him, as instead of turning around he shakily opened a drawer containing a first aid kit and tugged up the top half of his costume, revealing a painful looking gash that ran across his side.  

“Kid!” Hal spoke again, much louder this time, as he ran towards the boy. “Do you need to go to a hospital?”  

Duke’s head shot up, and he shook it so rapidly that Hal thought it might fall off. “No!” He shouted. “No, no, Bruce says it’s not a good idea for us to go to the hospital.”  

Hal looked incredulous though. “I can’t imagine how many stabbings happen a day in Gotham, but there’s probably enough for you to get medical attention without anyone getting suspicious.”  

Duke gave a quiet wheeze. “Look, can you just get Al-” He trailed off. “No, Bruce said he was on a date tonight.”  

“Alfred’s on a date?” Hal had a lot of questions (most of which were about how Alfred could find the time to meet someone when his employer was out there getting himself almost killed every night), but none of them seemed all that important when Duke gripped the bed frame in a desperate attempt to avoid falling over.  

It must have been years since the last time Hal had done first aid on anyone. In fact, he was reasonably sure that the last time had been when he had been sent on a secret mission by the US Air Force, which had been less secret than he’d been led to believe, and all the pilots had been shot down and tortured for weeks. He’d had to drag his oldest friend through the snow, dodging squads of guards while trying to keep him from bleeding out, all the while knowing that it was only happening because he took his ring off before getting in the plane.  

Hal shook his head, trying to bring himself back to the present, he needed to be in the present if he was going to be able to help Duke.  

He pulled the first aid kit toward himself, tugging on a pair of gloves in an effort to keep any germs from getting into the wound, and began to work, being as careful as possible as he rubbed disinfectant into the wound, and cleaned it of all dust and particles.  

“I think,” he said, after examining the wound for a while. He was trying to ignore the shadowy presence that appeared behind him part way into cleaning the scratch (although Duke had stiffened, and Hal, who hadn’t been expecting the sudden movement, had ended up pressing too hard with a cotton ball), “that it looked worse than it was, but ‘coz it needs to be closed, we should staple it.”  

Bruce grunted from behind him, probably offering a second opinion, and pushed him away from the patient. “You need to rest though, and get back to Coast City,” he said, already taking over with the stitches, “why didn’t you call and tell me Scarecrow was operating in your city?” He asked.  

There it was, the urge to fight Bruce. Hal hadn’t felt it in years. He fell onto the other bed with a groan. 

At least that had sounded like an offer to help him.


	7. Chapter 7

This had been supposed to be a nice quiet night with his friends, in as much as any of the Lanterns were his friends, they were supposed to chat and have a drink together. At least that was what Hal had told him, Bruce knew the Lanterns, and it wasn’t like they hated him. Plus, Hal had said, Hal himself would be there to make things less awkward.  

It all worked in theory. Except Bruce had been at Guy’s bar for half an hour and had spent those thirty minutes with Guy Gardner breathing down his neck, with John Stewart and Kyle Rayner doing absolutely nothing to discourage him, and there was still absolutely no sign of his boyfriend.  

“Do you have a wine selection?” Bruce asked, trying to deflect away from Gardner’s questions about exactly what Jordan was like in bed. Hal might have been shameless, but Bruce couldn’t exactly see him being enthused about Bruce telling his coworkers that he was a greedy bottom.  

“Want me to go out and buy you a decanter to go with it, rich boy?” Guy sneered, and again Bruce thought that Stewart really should be doing something to stop this. A quick glance told him that John was smiling into his glass. He was enjoying this. “Now see,” Guy continued, cutting off Bruce’s comment about how any decent bar would sell wine, “everyone knows that Jordan got fucked by Kilowog this one time, see, it was in the training room, so the sound of the moaning carried, and Jordan was limping for a straight week, so I’m thinking-”  

“Guy,” John warned, because apparently, he would interrupt to protect Hal’s honor, but would do absolutely nothing to help Bruce.  

“Johnny, it’s fine.” Guy continued, but he was more of a foolish man than a brave one. “I was just sayin’ no way can Bats satisfy a man who’s taken a Bolovaxian prick!”  

Luckily, Bruce’s phone rang at that exact moment, and he raised up one finger to indicate that Guy should shut the fuck up for five minutes.  

Hal was on the other end of the line, and Bruce had already guessed that it wouldn’t be good news: “Hey, so, there’s been a bit of an emergency at work...”  

At that point, Tom Kalmaku’s loud voice drifted over the line. “I cannot believe that you put all your paperwork off until the end of the month! Again!”  

Bruce couldn’t stop himself from sighing. He should have known.  

“I promise,” Hal continued, although he sounded stressed, “I promise that I will get out of work soon.”  

“Not fucking likely!” Tom crowed, and Bruce got a distinct feeling that he was enjoying this, probably he had been reminding Hal for weeks and weeks to do his work, and was now pleased to see the Lantern get his comeuppance. “Hal’s gonna be here until midnight at least.”  

When the call ended, Bruce dropped his head down to the bar and began knocking his forehead against the wood.  

John was clearly trying to pretend he wasn’t laughing, he had the palm of his hand pressed against his mouth. “I asked him two days ago if he was sure that he had everything done. He said he was good to go.”  

“So, he lied to both of us.” Saying that had been a mistake.  

Bruce saw the way John stilled in slow motion, watched the way his shoulders stiffened and how he took in a breath. “Hal forgets,” John said after he calmed down. “I don’t think he lies. He’s never been the same since he was Spectre. He takes so much onto his shoulders that I think being a human being falls through the cracks.”  

John was right, of course. Hal stretched himself way too thin, dealing with his Earth Villains, dealing with his Space Villains, and then there was League business, saving the universe with the Corps, and trying to keep Ferris Air afloat. After Arthur had fished him out of the sea, half drowned and shivering because he’d accidentally let his ring charge get down to zero again, Bruce had offered to let him move into the manor full time, Hal had adamantly refused.  

John might have been right, but that didn’t mean that Bruce liked how he’d said it. There had been tension simmering between them since Bruce had started dating Hal, something about the situation annoyed John, and it was time to address it. “Say what you want to say,” Bruce said.  

“I don’t understand what you mean,” John replied, with the air of someone who understood exactly what was meant but was avoiding the argument.  

“You what? Don’t what me to be with Hal?” Bruce asked, keeping his eyes on John’s face, he saw the way the man gritted his teeth.  

“Honestly? I don’t. You were on his ass for years about Parallax. No matter what he did to redeem himself, not even when it turned out it wasn’t him, you never forgave him. You even used him as bait for some kind of sin obsessed serial killer. I don’t trust you not to hurt him, and if you do, I swear-”  

Before Bruce could even speak, Kyle continued. Bruce hadn’t even been sure if he’d been listening. “Sorry Bruce, but I’m not sure either, he tried to kill himself when he was Spectre, and he sacrificed himself to save us, but you said...”  

“I know what I said,” Bruce snapped, he knew what he said, and he’d regretted saying it every day of his life since then.  

“Oh no,” John’s eyes flashed green with his willpower, “I want to hear exactly what you said.”  

“Also,” Guy chimed in, apparently upset when all the attention wasn’t on him, “Bruce punched me in the face!”  

Uncertain of how that was related to the present conversation, Bruce bit back on the other points. “You expect me to apologize for being upset with someone I had cared about when everyone thought he was a murderer?”  

“Yes,” said John.  

“It might be nice,” said Kyle.  

“Someday, when you aren’t paying attention, I’m going to jump around the corner and punch you,” said Guy.  

Bruce definitely regretted coming.  

“Hey, did I miss roasting Bruce?” Hal’s voice came from the door. “Because I have a few complaints, first of all, he used up all the hot water in my apartment this morning, and second, he keeps on saying that Alan’s his favorite Lantern, even after I give him amazing blowjobs.”  

“It’s not me?” Kyle looked offended.  

“Blowjobs can’t outweigh you refusing to follow orders, Hal,” John commented, and Bruce shot him a glare, he was being a hypocrite.  

“But John, Bruce hasn’t mentioned Parallax in years, and he has apologized, in a way. You don’t need to worry about me. I’m happy.”  

John looked uncertain, changing the subject. “Did you leave Tom with all your paperwork?”  

“Yes, and I swear I’ll go back, only, you need to know that I love Bruce.” Hal swallowed. “I like being with him, and he hasn’t done anything to hurt me.”  

John grunted, but nodded, getting up to shove Hal back out the door.  

“I call dibs if Bruce hurts him!” Guy, as always, needed to have the last word. 


End file.
